fighting will hinder for this turn--
go to, Heregar, I will tell you no more. Now do my bidding and go, and
never will you forget that you helped an old witch with her burden."

"Well, then, Mother," I said, hooking up the mail tippet across my face,
"if I must go down into the town, surely I will carry that bundle."

"That shall you not," she answered, dropping it again, and sitting down
on it. "Heregar the king's thane--the standard bearer--shall bend to
no humbler burden than the Dragon of Wessex. Go; and Thor and Odin
strike with you."

And then she covered up her face, and would look no more at me. I
thought her crazed, maybe, but a sort of chill came over me as I heard
her name the old heathen gods, and I thought of the Valas of old time,
and knew how here and there some of the old worship lingered yet.

However, good advice had she given, showing me the way to try my fortune
in the way I wished, and after that heathenish blessing I had no mind to
stay longer, for such like are apt to prove unlucky; so I bid her good
even, and went my way towards the town. After all, I thought, king's
thane I was once, and may be again; and to bear the standard must be won
by valour, so that, too, may come to pass. Whereupon I remembered the
badger that scared me in the moonlight, and was less confident in myself.

Many were the questions put me as I passed into the marketplace of
Bridgwater, but I answered none, pushing on to where I saw Osric the
Sheriff's banner over a great house. Mostly the men scoffed at me for
thinking that I should win more renown in disguise; but some thought me
a messenger, and clustered after me, to hear what they might.

When I came to the house door, where Osric lay, it was guarded, and the
guards asked me my business. I said I would see the sheriff and then
they demanded name and errand. Now, I could give neither, and was at a
loss for a moment. Then I said that I was one of the bearers of the war
arrow, and though that was but a chance shot, as it were, it passed me
in at once, for often a bearer would return to give account of some
thane ill, or absent, or the like.

They took me to a great oaken-walled hall where sat many thanes along
great tables, eating and drinking, and at the highest seat was Osric,
and next him, Matelgar. This assembly, and most of all that my enemy
should be present, was against me in making my plea; but as the old
crone had said, I should be no loser by witness.

I